Merits of Love
by Boyfrom0z
Summary: Haruhi sees through Kyouya's mask to his hidden feelings for Tamaki. However, he's not the only host hiding his feelings. When best friends end up alone in the Third Music Room, hidden feelings start to be exposed.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Not my characters, just my plot.

**Note:** This is my first real go at this. I guess I got a little carried away. I'd be honored if you took the time read at least part of this and tell me what you think!

The girls had finally left the Third Music Room in Ouran High School. Hunny was still eating cakes, watched closely by Mori who seemed determined to prevent his friend and charge from getting another cavity. Hikaru was alternately teasing Kaoru and making up with him in ways that would make any fangirl faint. Tamaki, the prince of woman-pleasers, was failing rather horrendously to flirt with Haruhi. Kyouya sat at the table a little distance from the others, alone, save for his laptop, which was open to his detailed spreadsheet of the clubs finances. Although his eyes were glued to the screen, he couldn't see it. He heard the Hunny's happy munching noises, the Kaoru's teasing, Tamaki's would-be flirting, and the emptiness inside his own chest.

Before Haruhi had joined the Host Club, he'd had everything shorted out. Kyouya liked things to be sorted out and the sudden blow to his ordered world that had shaken him so badly had never truly left him. Before that commoner had come along, Hunny had been the only one who truly understood Mori, but Haruhi had somehow seen into the silent young man. Before Haruhi had joined the club the twins had been each others' entire world even after they had joined the Host Club, but the girl had somehow broken the glass between them and everyone else and had stepped calmly through the hole as if the wall had never been there. Before that so-called "natural rookie" had invaded the club, Tamaki had been – even now he could barely admit it to himself – his best friend and now he only had eyes for Haruhi.

Despite the good Haruhi had done the Host Club in the eyes of their squealing clients and how happy she'd made his friend, Kyouya could keep himself from hating her. Kyouya knew that if Haruhi left the club, Tamaki would be beyond crushed, but that didn't mean Kyouya was not counting down the days till when her debt would be paid. However, he knew all to well that there was no way she would have paid it off in time for Tamaki to get over her. He also knew that whether or not Tamaki got over Haruhi, he could never be with her, even if she wanted to be with him – which she clearly didn't. More than he wanted Haruhi to leave, Kyouya wanted to protect his friend, but it seemed far too late for that now.

"Watcha working on, Kyou-chan?" chirped Hunny, making Kyouya jump.

"Finances," he said coolly without betraying anything.

"Oh," said Hunny and bounced off.

Kyouya tried to refocus on the spreadsheet, but he was jerked back to the club once more by Hunny's somewhat shrill voice.

"Where ya _going_, Haru-chan?"

"Home," said Haruhi giving a Hunny a look that said, "Where else would I be going?"

"You're leaving?" cried Tamaki dramatically.

"Yeah, I have to make dinner and-" she began.

"Make dinner!" Tamaki leapt to his feet. "You should not have to _make dinner_!" Tamaki waved his arms about dramatically. "We shall provide dinner for you! We shall-"

"Senpai, I can get food for myself, thank you," said Haruhi making Tamaki deflate entirely.

The first year girl strode out of the club smiling to herself at Tamaki's pitiful antics. The twins followed her out, plotting between themselves about catching up to her. When the doors closed behind them, Hunny looked up to see half to club was gone and hoped up from his chair, rubbing his eyes and dragging his pink, bunny by one ear. He tugged on Mori's sleeve and gazed blearily up at him.

"Are you ready to go, Mitsukuni?" Mori asked gravely.

"Uh-huh," mumbled Honey. "Bye-bye Tama-chan, Kyou-chan," he said as Mori silently lifted his tinny friend onto his shoulders and headed for the door.

Kyouya looked up from the screen of his laptop. He had been listening, but only when he knew he was alone with Tamaki did he raise his eyes from the spreadsheet he hadn't really been looking at.

"Tamaki," Kyouya began, unsure what he was going to say.

"Kyouya, what am I going to do?" cried Tamaki jumping to his feet in his typical melodramatic style.

"About what?" asked Kyouya with a sigh.

"Haruhi," he said sinking back into his chair.

Kyouya stopped himself from telling his friend the truth and instead got to his feet and walked over to the loveseat Tamaki had dramatically draped himself over.

"Well," said Kyouya sitting down, careful to avoid contact with his friend, "she doesn't seem to be attracted to same techniques your other clients enjoy."

"That's because she's not like my other clients," he said raising his hand to his forehead in a melancholy manor. "She's not like anyone."

"No, she's not," conceded Kyouya honestly.

"I don't know how to make her like me," he moaned.

"Maybe that's just the trouble," said Kyouya sensibly.

"What?" demanded Tamaki sitting up attentively.

"You're trying too hard. Just be yourself."

Tamaki gave his friend a look that seemed to say, "but I _am_ an overdramatic idiot!"

"You have a, well, calmer side," Kyouya pointed out, his mind drifting back to when Tamaki had pointed out that he was going about life all the wrong way, the day Tamaki had showed him the world outside the frame he'd felt so trapped in.

"You think she'd like that?" asked Tamaki breathlessly.

"It's worth a try," he reasonably.

"Thanks, Kyouya-kun!" cried Tamaki somehow managing to simultaneously jump to his feet and hug Kyouya with painful enthusiasm.

"Don't mention it," Kyouya muttered as he pried Tamaki off of him.

"Well, I've gotta get going," said Tamaki, beaming an almost blinding smile.

"Right," said Kyouya trying to make his dull voice sound cool and casual. "I've just to got to wrap up a few things here."

"See you tomorrow then!" said Tamaki cheerfully as he practically bounced out the door.

Alone at last in the third music room, Kyouya allowed himself break down entirely, letting his glasses slip through his fingers and clatter to the floor, his head fell into his hand, and the hot, anguished tears of the emotions he'd be suppressing for over two years poured out from his soul, shaking his entire body. He had no idea how long he'd stayed like that, only that he did not care anymore. He didn't care what his father would say when he got home late; he didn't care what any of his classmates would say if they saw his red, swollen eyes when he finally left; he didn't care if Tamaki saw - well, that he did care about. That was the one thing he cared about, Tamaki. As much as he tried not to, he couldn't help it. His friend haunted his dreams by night and unknowingly tormented him by day with his constant flirting and babbling about Haruhi. Kyouya didn't know how much longer he could take the deep, agonizing torture of watching his friend flounder for a girl who didn't even want him, while he ached for Tamaki look at _him_ that way. But Tamaki never would and Kyouya knew it.

Kyouya was still shaking with the sobs he'd repressed for so long when the door of the third music room opened. He didn't hear the well-oiled hinges, but he did hear the first few steps before this intruder on his grief froze. Kyouya sized his glasses, shoving them roughly onto his face as he jumped somewhat unsteadily to his feet, whirling to face the new comer over the loveseat. It was the second to last person he wanted to see there. It was Haruhi.

"Kyouya-senpai?" she said uncertainly.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded in a low, choked, voice.

"I- I forgot one of my books," she said taking a step back towards the door, away from his red-eyed fury.

"Do commoners not have to custom of knocking?" he said with barely stiffed rage suffusing his tear-filled voice.

"I didn't think anybody would be in here," she said quickly. Haruhi looked down at her shoes while Kyouya hurriedly wiped his eyes. When she looked up there was something new on her face that the older boy could not identify. "I don't want him, you know," she said quietly her gazing flickering on and off his face.

"You don't want who?" he asked, trying to keep the snarl from his tone.

"Ta- Tamaki-senpai," she whispered.

"Any fool can see that," Kyouya spat. "Well, any fool besides Tamaki. Why the hell are you telling me?"

"Because," she began, but hesitated, clearly afraid of his reaction.

"Well?" he snapped.

"Because," she didn't look at him and when she spoke her words came out in a rush as if she were desperate to speak them before she lost her nerve. "Because I've seen the way you look at him and I think he might have too and it's not that he doesn't care because I think he does. It's that he's scared, that's he's never known anything like this before and that's why he hides behind me – hides from you, I mean, and from himself, from how he feels."

Kyouya stared at her as his chest rose and fell quickly with the effort of forcing himself to speak.

"Get out," Kyouya crocked with a deadly quiet in his voice.

"Senpai, I-"

"Get out!" he shouted with such fury in his voice that Haruhi only stared at him with terrified eyes for a moment before fleeing.

Kyouya sunk back onto the loveseat, shaking once more. He wondered how that commoner saw through everyone the way she did. And, as furious as he was that she'd seen the true self he thought he'd hidden so well, he also wondered if she was right about Tamaki.

The next day Kyouya tried to hid the bruise on his cheek from where his father had stuck him for coming home so late and being so absent minded, but, of course, the first to notice it when he slid silently into his desk in his first period class was Tamaki.

"Kyouya!" he exclaimed, "what-?"

"Later," muttered Kyouya, giving Tamaki a look that could have caused a spring meadow to ice over.

Tamaki did not mention the mark again until they were alone in the third music room, but he did keep shooting Kyouya concerned, sidelong glances. Once they were freed from their final class, Tamaki dragged Kyouya to the empty host club room, the determination to speak with to his friend glinting in his eyes. Tamaki lead him to the exact same loveseat Kyouya had shouted at Haruhi over the previous day and sat him down, gripping his upper arms as if afraid his injured friend might make a break for it.

"What happened?" Tamaki asked with a seriousness that sounded somehow unnatural coming from the flamboyant, young host.

"What do you mean?" mutter Kyouya pushing his glasses self-consciously up his noise.

"You know what I mean," said Tamaki with almost frightened concern. "Who hit you?" he asked, releasing Kyouya from his grasp in order to indicate the bruise.

Kyouya looked away and raised one hand automatically to the shadowy mark on his cheek, but said nothing.

Tamaki's hand suddenly shot out and grabbed Kyouya's wrist, pulling his hand away from his face. Kyouya's head whipped around to stare at Tamaki. Their eyes locked, Tamaki's worried for his friend, Kyouya's full of the terror of having to face the unspoken feelings he knew he would never see reflected in Tamaki's eyes.

"Was it your father?" asked Tamaki bluntly and let go of Kyouya's wrist.

After a moment of hesitation, Kyouya dropped his gaze and nodded.

"I thought so," said Tamaki his voice hushed with the pain he felt for his fourth-born friend.

"It's nothing though," said Kyouya with a little shake of the head.

"Nothing?" cried Tamaki. "If this is nothing-" he began in alarm, but Kyouya cut him off.

"That's not what I meant," he explained hurriedly. "I just meant: it looks worse than it is." He stood up and took a few quick steps towards the window, before stopping uncertainly.

"My God," said Tamaki, also rising, "I thought you meant he'd done worse to you. I mean to say, if slapping you, his son, is nothing," his voice trailed of into some sort of horrible fantasy of domestic violence.

"I hardly think he sees me as his son," muttered Kyouya darkly, more to himself that to Tamaki.

"Don't _say_ that," said Tamaki softly, coming up behind Kyouya and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Kyouya stood frozen for a moment, not sure if he was enjoying Tamaki's touch or if he even should be enjoying it, or if he should shake the hand off or if he should turn and... _And do what? _Kyouya tried to shake himself mentally. He stepped firmly out from under Tamaki's hand and turned to face him at a proper distance. Tamaki stood looking at him, one hand still floating awkwardly in the air.

"Come on, we've got to get ready. The girls will be here soon and nobody else has shown up yet." He looked around as if expecting the rest of the host club to pop up from behind the furniture.

"Right," said Tamaki, lowering his hand somewhat dazedly.

Kyouya started getting tea and coffee set up, but as the time when the host club would be open drew ever nearer and no one else showed up he grew more and more nervous. He couldn't explain it, not even to himself, but he was somehow dreading that they would never come and that it would, somehow, be his fault when their costumers arrived and he and Tamaki were the only ones there. _That's ridiculous_. He told himself. _The others will come._

But they didn't.

It was almost time for the doors of the Third Music Room to be opened. Tamaki turned to his friend, panic in his eyes.

"What do we do? Where is everybody?"

Kyouya tried not to look too guilty as his hand shot nervously to the bridge of his glasses and didn't answer. Tamaki stopped his fevered spazzing about the room long enough to give Kyouya a "why aren't you doing anything about this" look and froze midway through a desperate dash across the room when he saw the look on Kyouya's face.

"Kyouya?" he asked uncertainly.

"We'll just have to go on without them," said Kyouya, once again becoming his usual, businesslike self.

"But I really thought I saw _all_ of them at school today," protested Tamaki.

"Have you got a better idea?" asked Kyouya shortly. "It's too late to look for them now."

"But what to we tell them?" wailed Tamaki with a huge gesture towards the door.

"Tell who?" said Kyouya grimly, as he opened the door to reveille an hall that was entirely girl-free save for Haruhi who barely counted as she was in the company of four other boys, namely Hunny, Mori, Hikaru, and Kaoru.

Tamaki stared dumfounded at the nearly empty hall, which was usually filled with giggling girls at this time. Kyouya, on the other hand, had known there would be no costumers on the other side of the door; he had noticed how quiet it was, but he had not expected to be faced with the rest of the host club.

"What is going on?" cried Tamaki, throwing up his arms in distress.

"That's what we'd like to know," said Hikaru coldly, his question clearly directed at Kyouya.

All eyes turned to the dark, silent young man.

"Would Haruhi not tell you?" he said coolly. "You've clearly been talking to her."

"Kyouya, what is going-?" Tamaki began confused.

"Well?" Kyouya pressed the hosts in the hall.

"Oh, she told us all right," said Hikaru.

"We just want to know why," said Kaoru.

"Guess you didn't tell them anything then, did you?" Kyouya asked Haruhi, still maintaining his extreme cool.

Haruhi avoided his gaze.

"What?" he demanded icily. "You're not the one in any kind of danger here." Kyouya could barely keep his gaze from flicking to Tamaki, but he managed to suppress the urge.

"What do you mean?" she asked hoarsely.

"Oh, I think you know," he shot back.

"Is someone going to tell me-?" began Tamaki loudly.

"Apparently your friend here decided to vent some of his pent up anger on Haruhi," said Hikaru before Kyouya could stop him.

"Kyouya, what did you do?" asked Tamaki in a soft, hurt, and confused voice.

"I didn't _do_ anything to her," snapped Kyouya turning and striding across the Third Music Room to retrieve his bag. "Now if we aren't going to be doing any hosting, I have better ways to spend my time." He tried to push past those in the hall, but they bared his way.

Suddenly and to everyone's surprise, Mori spoke.

"What happened to your face, Kyouya?" he asked quietly.

Kyouya's free hand flew to his check as if to hid the shadowy mark.

"It's nothing," he muttered, sounding, for the first time during his confrontation, embarrassed.

"Is that a bruise?" asked Hunny with concern that suggested he'd been completely distracted from why he was there.

"It's nothing," repeated Kyouya harshly.

"Yeah, it is a bruise," said Tamaki quietly.

"Tamaki's!" hissed Kyouya, spinning to face him.

"What?" said his friend, "Are you ashamed of being able to take blows? I thought that was something of an honorable quality."

"So is keeping your mouth shut," Kyouya spat.

The two glared at each other for a long moment until Haruhi's voice broke the tension between them.

"Why did he hit you, Kyouya-senpai?" she asked softly.

Kyouya did not even think to question how she knew. She always knew.

"I got home late," he said his voice calm once more.

"You were late?" repeated Hikaru.

"That was it?" asked Kaoru.

"Yeah," said Kyouya. "Now, if you'll excuse me." He tried and failed to leave again.

"Guys, I told you this wasn't a good idea," said Haruhi, turning to the others with her. "Can't you just let him be?"

She turned and left. One by one the others followed her, each throwing Kyouya a dirty looking before taking his leave. Soon Kyouya and Tamaki were alone again.

"Kyouya, what happened?" asked Tamaki softly, laying a hand on Kyouya's shoulder again.

"She sees into people like no one I've ever met before," he said taking a step away from Tamaki and his hand.

"Yeah, she really does," Tamaki agreed, lowering his hand awkwardly. "So, she saw something in you that you didn't want her to see?" he asked after a pause.

"Something like that," Kyouya muttered, not looking at Tamaki. He sighed. "And I yelled at her, kind of lot," he admitted.

"Oh," said Tamaki.

A long silence stretched between them.

"Aren't you going to jump to her defense?" asked Kyouya.

"What?" said Tamaki, sounding somewhat startled.

"Aren't you going to defended your little love?"

"Oh, that," he looked away uncomfortably. "I mean-," he said quickly trying to rectify his mistake. "Not that I don't, 'cause I do. Of course I do. I mean, yes, um, her defense, right."

"Tamaki?" asked Kyouya talking a small step towards his scarlet friend. "What do you really mean?"

"I mean," he began, but stopped and sighed. "What did she say to you, Kyouya?"

"If I didn't want her to know what she saw in me, why on earth would I tell you?" he asked with an attempt at a cool smile.

"Because she talked to me too," said Tamaki quietly.

"She what?" cried Kyouya in a strangled whisper.

"Not about you," he said quickly. "Well, not _really_ about you, more about me." His eyes searched the floor between them.

"What did she say?" asked Kyouya slowly.

"That I'm being stupid, mostly," said Tamaki turning and crossing to the window on the far side of the room.

"That's not very specific," said Kyouya in a surprisingly gentle voice as he followed Tamaki and set his bag down again. "What were you being stupid about this time?"

Tamaki swallowed and glanced over his shoulder at his friend with a nervous smile. Kyouya prompted him with a look.

"Us," he whispered finally.

"Us?" repeated Kyouya barely able to force his voice from his throat.

"Yeah," Tamaki muttered without looking at Kyouya.

"Tamaki?" said Kyouya.

"Yes?" he whispered, turning to face his friend.

Kyouya had not intended what happened next to happen. Tamaki was his best – his only – friend. Nevertheless, there Kyouya stood in the Third Music Room, one arm around Tamaki's waist pulling his body to him, the fingers of his other hand entangled in the beautiful, blond hair he'd looked at for so long, his lips pressed to Tamaki's, who, to Kyouya's surprise, was not resisting him. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it. After what seemed to Kyouya like all of forever pressed into one moment of utter joy, he pulled away gently, letting his hand fall from Tamaki's hair to his back. He stood, stunned by shock and joy gazing into Tamaki's shinning, lilac eyes until the equally stunned host club king spoke.

"Kyouya," he breathed. "I guess that was what she was talking about, huh?"

"I guess so," Kyouya agreed.

"Is that what she saw in you? That you love me?" asked Tamaki softly.

"That I love you," repeated Kyouya in whisper glancing away, but not really seeing the world beyond the window his eyes were pointed at.

"You do, don't you?" asked Tamaki, suddenly hesitant as his eyes searched Kyouya's face.

"What?" Kyouya asked, coming back to earth with a sort of jolt.

"Do you love me?"

"I-," began Kyouya with no idea what he was going to say. "I don't know," he said at last and tried to pull his arms away from Tamaki.

Tamaki, however, held tight to his friend.

"Don't," he whispered, laying his head on Kyouya's chest.

Kyouya raised a hand and began to stroke Tamaki's hair, gazing over his head out the window at the picture perfect landscape that was Outran Academy. He stopped after a minute and passed his face into Tamaki's hair, breathing in the smell and closing his eyes.

_This has to be a dream_. Kyouya thought._ There's no way on earth that I'm not dreaming._ He sighed. _Even if it is a dream, at least it's a good one and I might as well enjoy it before it goes bad and I wake up._

Kyouya suddenly realized Tamaki was speaking somewhat franticly.

"Kyouya!" he squeaked in hysterical whisper.

"What?" Kyouya asked as he thought, _Great, this dreams about to turn into a nightmare._

Tamaki was peering over Kyouya's shoulder at something that clearly had him very upset.

"Kyouya!" he whispered again through gritted teeth.

"What?" repeated Kyouya as he turned with one arm still around Tamaki's waist and saw quite clearing "what." "Oh," he said.

"Yeah," said Tamaki in a shaky, oddly high-pitched voice.

"How long have they been there?" Kyouya whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Tamaki.

"I don't know," came the somewhat strangled reply.

"How long are they gunna stand there like that?" Hikaru asked Kaoru with an evil smile that matched his twins perfectly.

"I don't know. We could time them, might be entertaining."

Kyouya and Tamaki looked at each other, horrified, before each took a gigantic step away from the other.

"What are you two doing here?" snarled Kyouya.

"Nothing," replied to twins in unison.

"Why are you here?" demanded Tamaki's.

"No reason," they chimed.

"Oh come on, you expect us to believe that?" Kyouya snapped.

"What are you guys-," began Hikaru.

"Doing here?" finished Kaoru.

"Nothing," said Tamaki at once.

"Why are you guys-," began Kaoru.

"Here?" finished Hikaru.

"No reason," said Kyouya tersely.

"Do you really expect us to believe that?" the twins asked, their grins growing.

"You're ones to talk!" spat Kyouya.

The twins smiled, turned, and started to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Tamaki called after them.

"To find Haruhi," said Hikaru.

"She wanted to talk to Kyouya-senpai," said Kaoru.

"You've got to be kidding me," said Kyouya to himself as the twins turned the corner and disappeared down the hall.

Both boys stared after them for a long time before Kyouya walked back across the Third Music Room and closed the door.

"What are you going to tell her?" he asked Tamaki.

"What do you mean?"

"God knows what those two are going to say! What are _you_ going to do about it?" Kyouya pressed.

"Do I need to do something about it?" Tamaki asked with a slight smile.

"What do you mean?" Kyouya asked slowly.

"It's not like she doesn't know."

"Tamaki," Kyouya began, but stopped not knowing what to say. He opened his mouth to speak, but at just that moment the door opened.

"Kyouya-senpai?" came Haruhi's hesitant voice as she peered into the host club. "Oh," she said as she saw that Kyouya was not alone. "Tamaki-senpai."

"Did the twins not tell you I was here?" Tamaki asked.

"No," said Haruhi, sounding confused.

"Well, sounds like those two did something half was decent for someone else. That just might be a first," observed Kyouya.

"Senpai," Haruhi began turning to Kyouya, "I didn't want them all to come here like that. I didn't even mean to say anything, but the twins sort of got part of it out of me. I'm sorry." She paused to see his reaction, but Kyouya gave none. She took a deep breath and continued. "It was my fault really and I am sorry. I really am." Haruhi stopped to see if he'd reacted yet. He, of course, had not, so she made a very dangerous offer. "Is there anything I can do for you to make up for it?"

Kyouya looked at Tamaki and smiled.

"You already have."

Haruhi smiled and left the boys alone once more.

"Tamaki?"

"Yeah?"

"I believed I failed to answer one of your earlier questions," said Kyouya.

"What question?" asked Tamaki.

"You asked me if I love you," Kyouya reminded him.

"Oh," Tamaki said, looking away like he was afraid of how Kyouya was going to answer.

"Yes," Kyouya said.

"What?" Tamaki asked sounded confused as if he did not dare believe what Kyouya had said.

"I love you, Tamaki. I don't know why, I don't know what the merits are, but I do."


	2. Chapter 2

**Note:** I actually meant this to be done with the last chapter, but apparently it didn't sound done so I gave it what I think is a more complete ending.

Tamaki looked at Kyouya and couldn't stop himself from giving a small laugh.

"You know something?" he said.

"I know a lot of things," replied Kyouya with a smile. "Which thing were you referring to?"

"I love you," Tamaki whispered in his ear. "Did you know that?"

"Of course."

"But you didn't know it before."

"Neither did you."

They looked at each other for a long moment just enjoying being able to show their true selves and not hide how they felt.

"I have to go," said Kyouya sadly after a perfect forever had passed in Tamaki's lilac eyes.

"I guess you do," Tamaki said as he raised a hand to the bruise on his friend-turned-lover's face.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Kyouya assured him as he gently placed his hand upon Tamaki's.

"I know, but still..." Tamaki's voice trailed off into an empty pit of sorrow at having to part from Kyouya so soon after realizing his love for the young man. "I never thought I'd fall for the "Cool Type" in the end," he said with a smile.

"And who could have possibly imagined me with the "Prince Type." I mean, does that seem like me?"

"I don't care what it seems like as long as it is you, Kyouya," Tamaki whispered wrapping his arms around the slightly shorter boy.

Kyouya knew he should get home ASAP, but he wasn't about to stop Tamaki from pulling his closer and kissing him once more. He knew he was lingering too long in his new lover's arms, but as his fingers tangled once more in the soft, blonde hair he also knew he didn't care. This was best thing he'd ever knows and he would willingly take his fathers rage to told Tamaki a few moments longer.

"You should go," Tamaki reminded him at last.

"I know," Kyouya replied with a sigh as he stepped reluctantly away.

"Tomorrow," Tamaki reminded him catching his hand for a final moment of contact.

"Of course."

Their eyes meet and it was all Kyouya could do to force himself to turn away from those eyes and walk out of the host club. As he hurried down the hall, he heard an unmistakable cry of joy echoing out of the Third Music Room behind him.

* * *

The next day, when the girls had finally left the Third Music Room in Ouran High School, Kyouya looked around at the hosts and smiled. It really wasn't that different from a few days ago when he had broken down out of utter despair. Hunny was still eating cakes, watched closely by Mori who seemed determined to prevent his friend and charge from getting another cavity. Hikaru was alternately teasing Kaoru and making up with him in ways that would make any fangirl faint. Yet today, Haruhi was sitting at a table by the window studying and Tamaki was sitting at the table beside Kyouya. Kyouya was tapping away on his laptop, which was open to his detailed spreadsheet of the clubs finances. Although his eyes were not always glued to the screen, today he was exactly what was on it when he did glance at it. He heard the Hunny's happy munching noises, the Hikaru's teasing, the scratching of Haruhi's pen, and felt Tamaki's hand close around his own. He glanced up into the lilac eyes and saw his own love reflected there and he knew the joy, and merits, of love.

-End-


End file.
